“So why the fuck are you here right now?” Bella Downing asked, sat on the apron of the larger of the two wrestling rings inside the Santa Barbara Ante Up academy, as Aaron Helms stood leaning against the ring post on the floor by the side of the ring. It was a reasonable question, given the reason for Bella being there in the first place, before the school even opened for business. She had been called the evening before by Matty Stone, who asked her to come in for a meeting and had turned up as requested even if she wasn’t happy about having to get out of bed as early as she had to make it there at the requested time, and was shocked to find that it wasn’t just Matty that was there, but the general manager Johnny Ward, part time wrestler and current trainer Brittany Lohan and, as indicated by her question aimed at him, Aaron Helms too. Aaron was the only one that wasn’t in the office upstairs though, because technically he wasn’t a part of the team that ran the school, and as such had no place in the meeting that was taking place on the floor above where he and Bella now waited. “Those three up there, that I get... but what the fuck have you got to do with this bullshit?” Bella asked, and her face made it obvious that she was both confused and annoyed by his appearance at the wrestling school... it wasn’t as if she owed Aaron anything and it definitely wasn’t as if he owed her anything; he had spoken to her a total of two times, once the day he met her and then a week later, and while the first time they spoke the two did have at least a modicum of proper conversation, the second was passing polite conversation for a couple of minutes as they bumped into one another while Bella was just leaving AnteUp and Aaron was just getting there for his workout. It wasn’t as if the two were the best of friends, and in truth, if Brittany hadn’t asked for him to be asked in, he wouldn’t be there anyway... but he was there, and he had no reason to hide the truth from Bella, so he simply shrugged his shoulders.
“Britt wanted me here for some reason apparently,” Aaron told her, not really having much more information than that to actually give. “Matty stopped by last night, he wanted to talk to Dave but called in on me too and asked if I’d come here, said he’d explain properly in the morning, so now I guess?”
“It doesn’t take the smarts of a rocket scientist to figure out what this is all about,” Bella said, sighing before shaking her head. “Clearly it’s about what that asshole said to them, making out I’m trying to sell steroids...”
“Yeah, I can’t say that wasn’t the first thing that went through my mind when I got here and saw you here too,” Aaron replied, nodding his head; it really didn’t take a genius to see that this was some sort of disciplinary issue, given that it was Matty and Johnny here to see the brunette... though Britt’s involvement was something that Aaron couldn’t explain as easily.
“Doesn’t explain why Britt’s here though,” Bella said, as if she was reading Aaron’s mind. What was Britt there for, that was the question; it wasn’t as if Brittany was on the same level as Matty and Johnny, if anything it should have been Dave or Tommy there as the owners... unfortunately, with Dave going through the drama he was in SCW and Tommy completely off the radar, that explained their absence at least... but again, did little to explain why Brittany Lohan was there, other than possibly because she was one of the few trainers that was free, or perhaps simply because she was dating Matty? “It’s not like I need an audience if they’re kicking me out either, so the whole thing just fucking stinks anyway,” she added and Aaron nodded his head.
He wasn’t sure that was what was going on though, and he didn’t hide that from the young woman. “I don’t think they’re kicking you out...” he told her, turning to lean on the apron instead of the ring post. “I don’t think they’d drag you here and hold some dumb meeting if they were... they definitely wouldn’t invite me to the thing is that’s what they were doing anyway...”
“Yeah, I guess,” Bella said before sighing heavily. It was of little shock that Aaron didn’t really believe her, given the complete lack of conviction in her voice as she said it, but what could he do to convince her when he had no idea if he was right himself? For all Aaron knew, he was dragged in because of the fact that they were going to tell her she was no longer welcome at AnteUp and that they wanted him there as some sort of witness? He wasn’t privy to the discussions that went on behind closed doors, unless it was Dave talking about things at home and sometimes Aaron had picked up on things that way in the past... but this? He was as clueless as Bella was, and while it made no difference to him what was going on, he couldn’t help but think about how unfair that was for the brunette in question. “I just wish they’d tell me to take a hike if that’s what this shit is… as long as they give me some time to grab a back and pack some of my shit anyway, before they call my parole officer…”
“I’m telling you, I don’t think that that’s what this is,” Aaron told her, shaking his head. “If it was, they wouldn’t have gone for the ceremony, Matty would probably have just told you to come and clear your locker,” he told her, completely convinced of that, even if he didn’t know why and had nothing to back it up with. “Okay, so christ knows what this is actually about, but I don’t think they’re kicking you out… final warning maybe? Or putting you on some sort of special measured? Fucked if I know… but if it is them kicking you out, I’ll buy a hat and then fucking eat it…”
Bella opened her mouth to speak, but before she could utter the first word, the silence in the room was broken by the sound of the office door opening upstairs on the mezzanine which looked down over the gym floor below. Aaron stepped back and looked up as Bella jumped from the apron and walked to stand by him, but neither of them could see who was now walking across the balcony from where they stood, the floorboards creaking under foot as they reached the stairs and started to walk down them. 
Boot-clad feet slowly appeared before the figure in question appeared in view; Brittany Lohan slowly walked down the stairs and made her way to where Aaron and Bella were stood, watching on curiously. “You can head up now,” Brittany told Bella, her voice impassive and nonchalant. “Matty and Johnny are waiting for you, they’ll let you know the score... go on, don’t keep them waiting,” she added when Bella didn’t motion to move during her initial instruction, leaving Bella with no uncertainty over whether it was a request or an instruction. Sighing, Bella shook her head before doing as she told told, walking over to the staircase which Brittany had just walked over to them from, slowly trudging up them with heavy footfalls on each step, eventually disappearing from sight before the sound of her footsteps coming from the mezzanine above. Brittany looked up; though she couldn’t see anything from where she and Aaron stood, they could hear Bella’s progress across the landing and eventually they heard her knock on the door and a moment later the door closed. Brittany’s shoulders relaxed a little once the door closed and she turned back to look at Aaron, her face now set into what was basically a half-smile; this was Brittany Lohan, she wasn’t known for her sunny disposition, but she did seem pleased, and normally that would mean someone was either about to get hurt or had already been hurt, which put Aaron on edge because his first thought was that she was only pleased because Bella really was about to be kicked out of AnteUp. “What?” Britt asked when she saw the way Aaron was looking at her, actually chuckling a little. “No really, what’s biting your ass?”
“Okay, what the fuck is going on here Britt?” Aaron asked, frowning. It wasn’t as if he was particularly close to Brittany, in fact he hadn’t had that much to do with her at all really, save for occasionally being in the same room as her at AnteUp or at home, so he wasn’t expecting her to really tell him much but to his surprise, she didn’t tell him to mind his own business... then again, was that really all that surprising, given it was her who asked that Aaron be there for whatever the hell was going on?
“I probably should have spoken to you last night in all honesty, that has to be on me,” Brittany told him, nodding her head before she walked to the ring and hopped onto the apron to sit down. “But given it was only last night that I managed to put everything together, you’ll have to give me this one...”
“Give you what?” Aaron asked, even more confused now and Brittany patted the apron next to her, telling him to take a seat. He was tempted to open hostilities just to get her to tell him what the fuck was going on, but in the grand scheme, would that have been productive? And in all honesty, the only reason he actually had to be angry was because he was there and didn’t know why.
Walking to the ring, he hopped up onto the apron and took a seat next to Britt. “I don’t need to explain about the allegations thrown at Bella, because I already know that you know about them,” she said, and Aaron looked at her, his eyebrows raised. “Matty told me about your conversation with Bella a couple of weeks ago, about her opening up to you... it’s why I wanted you here today actually...”
“You wanted me here because I spoke to her once?” Aaron asked, even more confused now than he was before, but Brittany shook her head.
“Not exactly,” she told him, continuing to shake her head. “I wanted you here because of the fact that she talked to you,” she went on, and at first it didn’t quite click what she meant by that, not until she continued to explain. “Being blunt, we’ve struggled... I know Bella isn’t the first to come here under the circumstances she has done. Harmony is probably the true success story, but there’s been a few since Harmony to successfully make it through without getting busted again... but Bella? She’s been a challenge...”
“A challenge in what way?” Aaron asked, his curiosity piquing now that Britt was starting to explain what was going on. It wasn’t like he couldn’t guess what the answer was going to be, but why waste time playing detective when he could just get Britt to give him the info?
“It’s not that she hasn’t taken to the classes,” Brittany explained. “In fact, given the amount of anger that she’s got in her, I think she was actually happy to be here in a way. Getting to beat the crap out of the punch bag is evidently a good release for her... but that’s not the only thing we teach here, you know that,” she added, and Aaron knew what she meant. The first ever graduation classes at AnteUp, in those early days, they were crazy. The fact that so many of them were still friends, despite heading in their own directions, that said a lot about the ethos at AnteUp... and it may not be the same each year, some classes may be tighter than others where friendship was concerned, but even with the least friendly classes the element of comradery was still important. “Bella hasn’t really made friends with anyone though, not in the way we usually see anyway... I mean, she’ll talk to people, and I’m not one to advocate the BFF life myself, but she keeps herself to herself... which is why I was shocked when Matty told me that she’d opened up to you,” she added, surprise still registered on her face, even now some two weeks after the fact.
“Yeah well, I don’t think it was anything unusual,” Aaron said, shrugging. It wasn’t as if he’d got her to open up and tell him her deepest darkest secrets, was it? “I’m not the Bitch Whisperer or anything like that Britt, I just gave her own shit back to her when she got mouthy... guess she wasn’t used to people dropping to her level around here, but given the stuff I’d been going through leading up to that day, I wasn’t gonna take her crap, that’s all it was...”
“And yet that’s probably all it took,” Brittany said calmly. “Think about it AJ, when she’s here the only people that really talk to her are the staff or the other students... one set are in charge and the other are on her level. So it’s either instruction and being lectured, or people in competition with her, looking to get ahead. You come in, already graduated, already a success in the business, using the place to just work out... not her teacher, not her rival. And you gave her crap simply because she was giving it you,” she went on, knowingly. “And then she opens up to you, out of the blue because, I think, due to that exact reason...”
“So what, you want me here because you think I can get her to calm the fuck down?” Aaron asked, frowning. “Because it’s not like I don’t have enough shit on my plate right now Britt, without having to be some chick’s handler who I barely know...”
Brittany shook her head, bringing a hand up to cut Aaron off before he could rant any more than he just had. “Nobody wants you to be her babysitter kid, so calm down okay?” she said sternly. “That isn’t why I asked you to come here... I asked you to come here because I wanted to talk to you about her. In fact, if anyone is gonna act as her handler, it’ll be me, assuming she agrees to what Matty and Johnny are up there talking to her about right now,” she finished, nodding her head up above them in the direction of the office where Bella was currently in discussion with the two of them. “Between the two of us, Matty said they’d more or less reached the decision to let her go... it was more trouble than it would be worth for them, basically. If she continued getting heat from the other students and stories started to get out, it would harm the school. Before I found out she’d talked to you, I was set to just go ahead and let them do whatever they felt necessary... but the minute Matty told me about how she’d opened up to you, I realized it may be something we can use,” she finished and that left Aaron more confused than he was originally.
“Something you can use?” He asked, no idea where Britt was going with any of this. How could they use the fact he happened to have spoken to Bella once or twice and that she had maybe talked to him slightly more than she had anyone else? It wasn’t as if they were suddenly BFF’s as Britt put it, was it?! “Britt, she spoke to me once… that doesn’t mean that she has any inclination to talk to me about anything else going on in her life…” he said, shaking his head. “And if it’s you that wants to take her under your wing, then shouldn’t you be focusing on getting her to open up to you instead?”
“And who’s to say I’m not going to try and do that?” Brittany asked. “But I’m gonna need your help to do that, I think. I won’t bullshit you kid, I want to try and save Bella’s enrollment here mostly because I see something in her that I also saw in Helena and ultimately, that I see in myself. She’s angry at the world and given her story who can blame her… but I think I can make something of that and I want the chance to do it. You agreeing to help her will have some sway with Matty and Johnny, we both know that. If you tell them you agree with me, then maybe they’ll agree to keep her around.”
“And what makes you think they’ll listen to me anymore than they’ve listened to you?” Aaron asked, frowning again. Britt actually worked there, she was part of the staff, and she’d had a wrestling career that had lasted far longer than he had been part of the business. If she couldn’t convince Matty Stone and Johnny Ward to keep her around then what chance did he have of doing so?!
“Do you think I’d have asked for you to be here if I didn’t think you could make a difference?” she asked him, giving him a frustrated look. “AJ, I already talked to Matty… that’s why he asked you to come here, because he wants to see how you feel about it. I’m not saying I want you to try and become a life coach for her or anything like that, but it’s obvious that her life sucks, and getting kicked out of this place, that may just be the final straw, it could change the rest of her life and not for the better… I’ve been to jail and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it.”
He let that sink in; obviously he knew about Britt’s past, that she’d done time, and he was surprised in a way that she had somehow turned everything around given the statistics… but what did she expect him to be able to do?! “Britt, I’m not sure how I can help!” he said, genuinely feeling like she was expecting too much from him. “I’m not around all that much, i’m on the road more than half the week and I have a family to think about now as well, so how much time can I actually dedicate to helping you save this chick?”
“Just trying will help,” Britt reasoned. “I don’t expect you to be here every minute of every day. I’m not, and I’m employed by the place… but like I said, I don’t want you to be the one who works with her like that anyway.”
“Then what do you want?” he asked, curious about how he could help if he didn’t want her to actually help in the only way he thought he’d be useful.
“I want you to be a friend…” Brittany said, and that hit like a slap to the face. That must have registered on Aaron’s face, because Brittany actually laughed at his reaction. “I know, right? Me talking about friendships… thing is, given everything I’ve seen in her file, I can honestly say I’m not sure that she has anyone in her life who she’d consider a friend… and if anybody knows how that can feel at times, it’s me. Your mom was a friend to me once when I really needed one, I really value her friendship, and knowing that I have people I can rely on if I need them, it does help,” she said, looking a little uncomfortable to be sharing something so personal with Aaron. “I’ve got Matty and Johnny to agree to give it a try, and they’re up there now talking to Bella about the whole thing… they’re going to tell her it’s her last chance and her only shot of sticking around here; if she really wants to continue to learn at AnteUp then she’ll have to basically agree to work with me and you, though they’re obviously not telling her that I want you to be a friend rather than a mentor…”
That didn’t exactly make Aaron automatically want to help; in effect, they were lying to Bella about what was going on, or withholding the full truth at any rate… did he want to have any part in that if he didn’t agree with it? At the same time… if that was true that this really was Bella’s only option, how could he say no? He felt like he was in the middle of a catch 22 situation and he wasn’t happy that Britt had put him in the middle of this… but if Britt’s assessment was right and she had opened up to Aaron unlike she had anyone else that day, shouldn’t he actually be willing to do whatever he could to help? “And what if she says no?” he asked, wondering if Britt had even considered that. “If she flips out or gets offended and tells them to get fucked, then what?”
“Then she’s only got herself to blame because she turned down her last hope and there’s nothing I can do,” Britt said with a shrug before jumping down from the ring apron to pace away before turning around again. “There’s no helping some people, I know that already… at the same time until I know that she’s refusing our help, I want to do what I can to ensure she doesn’t end up in the same position I once was. Sometimes, you need someone else to step in and take control of things for you. That may be what Bella needs too… and despite the new attitude you’ve found lately, I know that you’re a good kid at heart and you do want to help where you can, or you wouldn’t be here right now…”
She had him there. How could he argue with that fact? He could have simply walked out of the door the minute Brittany explained why he was even there, the thought had gone through his mind already, though he’d continued to sit there and hear Britt out instead, which probably spoke volumes in itself. But was he actually the right person to help out, given everything that had happened in his life as of late? Britt wanted him to be a good influence, but he wasn’t exactly influenced by the right people himself anymore, so would he make things worse? He opened his mouth to say as much, but for the second time the sound of the office door opening in the otherwise silent gym cut him off and he jumped down from the ring apron himself to walk over to Britt as Bella soon appeared on the stairs at the side of the room. “They want to speak to you…” Bella said, nodding her head at Aaron as he walked towards her, meeting her halfway towards the staircase. He was trying to read the expression on her face but it was neutral and gave nothing away.
“Guess I’d better head up then,” he said, letting out a sigh, looking at her for a moment longer before turning to start heading for the stairs.
He got one step before Bella reached out and grabbed his forearm. He stopped and turned back around to look at her, confused. “I’m guessing Lohan was down here giving you the hard sell while I was getting the third degree up there,” she asked, and Aaron’s eyes flickered over at Brittany for a moment before back to Bella again and he nodded. “Figured as much… well, for what it’s worth, I told them I’d be willing to try anything so long as it helps keep me here. I already told you I’m on my last chance… I can’t go to jail, so I’ll try anything, even if it means I have to put up with your annoying ass,” she told him, before smirking. Aaron simply rolled his eyes before yanking his arm out of her hand and turning to walk on towards the stairs. Was this really something he was going to agree to? He half expected to find out that Bella had told them that she wasn’t interested, that she didn’t want a babysitter or that she didn’t need people to look after her. He expected her to have an attitude problem and refuse the help… and she hadn’t. He had Brittany Lohan asking him to help, he had Bella herself saying she was willing to accept it… and now he was about to go and speak to Johnny and Matty where they asked if he’d be willing to give that help. Did he really want to though… that was the question…
“This place is a real dump, you know that?” Bella said as she looked around at the old radio station building that her and Aaron had arrived at a little over ten minutes earlier... and it was a dump, there was no other way to look at it really; the building had been unoccupied for almost two years, the station that previously rented it out having shut down a month or so before they vacated it, and with the rise of internet radio it seemed that nobody wanted to move in and take up the property, which left it vacant and at some point, had clearly been used by rough sleepers too. The place was secure again, otherwise Aaron would never had taken on the lease, even if it was too cheap to turn down, but that didn’t stop it from being exactly what Bella called it. A dump. “I mean, I know that a coat of paint may make it look a little better, but you can’t polish a lump of shit dude, you know that right?” she asked as Aaron balanced precariously on an old rickety stool as he attempted to attach a sheet of black cloth to the wall with duct tape.
“You’re not helping, you know that right?” he said after tearing a strip of tape off and he crossed it over the corner of the cloth before slapping it against the wall.
“I know, I’m sitting here watching you struggle,” Bella replied, smirking to herself from her perch on what was probably the space where the mixing desk sat when it was still a radio station. The fittings were still kind of intact even if a lot of the place was pretty bust up, but Aaron would eventually rip most of it out anyway, once he got to actually work on it. “Besides, you asked me to come here and play camera monkey, not dress the set and any other crap that needs doing... I’m happy to hit those buttons like the best of ‘em, but the rest is on you dude,” she teased, still smirking to herself as Aaron climbed down from the chair and moved it a few feet away to repeat the action with the other corner of the cloth.
“You’re here,” Aaron said, tearing a piece of tape off before looking back up at the brunette. “Because I’m meant to be giving you an insight into how this stuff works... if you actually manage to graduate from AnteUp, you may have to get used to doing this yourself,” he told her before stepping back up onto the wobbly chair, to fix the strip of tape to the wall, pulling the sheet tight before slapping the tape to the wall. “But by all means, just continue to sit there and be useless if it’s giving you a good laugh.”
“You look like you’ve got it all handled,” Bella said, holding her hands up defensively as a crooked smile twisted across her face. “I just hope you’ve actually got ideas for what you want to do with this place when you have the time because let’s be honest dude, you could have done this shit at the gym in one of the rooms that isn’t used if you wanted somewhere to film these videos...” she went on as Aaron climbed back down from the chair and moved it out of the way and took a few steps backwards towards Bella to check the sheet was hanging straight enough.
Happy he’d done enough, he turned and looked at Bella, nodding his head. “I could have done yeah,” he admitted. “But then I’d spend an hour and a half driving out there and the same driving home again on top of the time it takes me to film the video. And honestly? I’d rather pay money every month and make this place into something cool than waste that much time on a company that stopped giving a fuck a long time ago...” he told her, shrugging his shoulders. “They pay me enough money to afford this place easily, the rent isn’t much anyway... and I can always charge people to use it if I want to, bring in some extra cash...”
“Who the fuck would want to rent this dump other than you?!” Bella asked, staring at him in disbelief. “Seriously, I’m worried I’m going to cut myself and end up with tetanus or some shit if I’m not careful!”
Aaron shook his head, having to stop himself from rolling his eyes at the brunette; she had no vision, none whatsoever! “You’re so fucking closed minded, you know that?” he told her, frowning. “You need to think of the bigger picture; imagine the walls all painted, black where the cloth is, maybe some grey accentuating, my logo on the wall behind me but with the ability to set up a green screen too, or different colored sheets, depending on what the person wants. I’ll fit lighting rigs on either side and we’ll fit some sound proofing to improve the audio quality... and over here, a monitor, there too on the other side,” he said, pointing to two of the walls inside of the room, “so that you can check the camera positioning out or watch what you’re doing if you want. We’ll have a couple other cameras set up too, to get different angles, and over there in the producers’ booth,” he said, pointing behind Bella, where a window presumably was to separate the two rooms, though the glass had long since gone. “We’ll put the glass back in, but put a coms system in so you can talk between rooms, and that’s where the production computers can go! So they’ll have live feeds from the cameras and audio and everything and they can make tweaks to either on the go... and then we can edit in house too!” he said, finally turning back to Bella with child-like enthusiasm on his face.
Bella sat there looking at him, several seconds of silence, before finally speaking. “You overthink shit way too much, don’t you?” she asked, cracking another grin. “And okay, so maybe your vision sounds great, but you’ve got to actually do all that stuff first...” she said, hopping down from the desk and stepping to the middle of the room before spinning around, her arms outstretched. “But until then,” she said as she came to a stop, looking at Aaron. “It’s still a dump...” she finished, grinning.
Aaron frowned and flipped her the bird before turning to grab the camera from his bag. Five minutes later, with the camera set up on the tripod, Aaron was showing Bella how to use it so that she could hit the right button when he was ready to start. “It really is that simple...” he finished, taking one last look at the LCD screen before turning to her. “Just hit that button and then I’ll do my thing... you can handle that, right?” he asked and now it was Bella’s turn to flip him off instead, which drew a smirk from the twenty-one-year old from New Jersey. “Alright, let’s get this show on the road then,” he finished, before grabbing his jacket and slipping it on. Zipping it up, he threw back the hood and walked in front of the camera, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly before he looked up and nodded at Bella, who did as she was instructed and thumbed the record button to get the show on the road.
[[RECORDING UNDERWAY]]
“So where the fuck do I even begin right now?” Aaron asked with a dry humorless laugh, shaking his head. “No, really... someone give me a fucking clue about what I’m supposed to say, because right now I don’t have a damn clue where I’m meant to begin or how I’m meant to talk about what the hell happened on Breakdown last Wednesday night... other than a fucking beating, I know that much!” he went on, shaking his head before looking away from the camera for a moment, letting out a loud sigh.
And then suddenly, his head snapped back to the camera, and he glared right down the lens as he continued to speak. “Know who I blame?” he asked, quirking a questioning brow. “Supreme Championship Wrestling! No, I’m fucking serious right now bro, I blame SCW for allof this, because if Mr. D hadn’t poked the fucking bear in the first place and tried to force Regan to face mefor the U.S title, none of this would have fucking happened in the first place! Oh, sure, you can blame Jason for double dipping with the wrong chick, you can blame Regan for snapping, for attacking D. or anything that her and Jason said to each other in those promos, but I swear to god right now, none of this bullshit happens if Mr. D doesn’t throw his weight around and that is exactly why I blame SCW for everything that’s happened to my family in the past couple months!” he said, shaking his head in anger. “Is it really any surprise that I decided to go into business for myself when the company I work for knowingly drove a wedge into my family, trying to play us all off against each other?! And it clearly fucking worked… I bet D. was sat at home jerking it at how dysfunctional the Helms family has been these last couple months, knowing that he masterminded this bullshit! We’re better than this, yet we’ve collapsed like a house of cards with the bottom corner missing and look at the state of things now! Jason got his ass handed to him by Regan out of revenge because he brought up personal shit that she didn’t like and I’m what, supposed to stand here and pretend I don’t care? I do! Regardless of whatever Jason has done to annoy my mom, regardless of whatever she’s done to annoy him, watching what happened last week made me feel sick to my fuckinf stomach and I can’t hide that. No, not because I hate what Regan did or because I’m team Jason or any of that shit, but because we should all be on Team Helms right now and the fact we’re not is fucking disgusting!” He said, shaking his head in anger, nostrils flaring as he glared down the barrel of the camera with such ferocity that it made it hard to remember a time when Aaron was ever one of the much loved good guys in SCW.
“And you know what?” He asked, once Aaron started to speak again. “There’s part of me that wondered whether it wasn’t better to just say fuck it and walk away, find a job in company where bias management wasn’t running the show and people got opportunities because they deserved them, rather than because the Boss wanted certain people to have everything and make his own job easier… but I’m not a fucking quitter! I’m not letting Mr. D drive me out of this company just because he has his own personal agenda against my mom, against me, or against our friends. I’m gonna be the bigger man and rise about his bullshit because that’s what real stars do! And regardless about what the board of doucherectors or Mr Douche himself thinks, that is exactly what I am, I’m a star in this company, both now and even more so in the future! Past… Present… Future. The clues in the fucking name!” He said hotly before a trusted grin started to appear on his face, playfully flicking across his lips before he continued to address the camera. “People don’t understand why I joined, why I started to work with them and follow their example… and like I needed more reason than wanting to work with my mom or being fed up with how this company was treating me… PPF is the embodiment of Supreme Championship Wrestling; we’ve achieved some of the biggest accomplishments in the history of this dump, we’re the name on everyone’s lips right now and soon enough? This company will belong to us and you have two choices… learn to like it, or get the hell out and find some other company to be a fan of, because your opinion doesn’t mean a fucking thing to us and the sooner you get that the better for all concerned!”
Smirking, Aaron thought about speaking but then paused, bringing a hand up to hold a finger up to the camera, and turning on the spot he began to pace. He moved from one side of the shot to the other, repeating his steps a couple times before starting to think out loud. “That’s Selena Frost’s problem, when you think about it,” he mused, slowly nodding his head as if he was actually agreeing with himself. “Oh sure, I could make the wise cracks about her that everyone makes, the same tired jokes as the rest of the pissants and yeah, they’d still be funny even if they were overdone to the point of them being cliche in their own right… but I’m not one of the sheep in this dump, no siree! Selena can’t use a crook to drag me in line like the rest of her herd of sheeple, you dumb bastards who sit at home and lap up her obnoxious in your face pandering like a bunch of morons looking to their supreme leader for what to think. And given the amount of pre-school kids tv I’ve had to watch since Elysian was born, you can only imagine just how many fucking jokes I could make right now, but I’m avoiding that for the sake of original content, just to keep the attention span of you morons at home. You’re welcome,” he said to himself, taking a moment to smile as he continued to pace before continuing to muse out loud. “As I said though, that is Selena Frost’s problem… she hates it when the attention is on somebody else, always has and always will. And I dunno man, I dunno if it’s a superiority complex, an inferiority complex, an inflated sense of self worth or what, but for whatever reason, Selena despises not having the limelight… you only have to look at the thinly veiled comments on twitter about cashing in that trios contract of hers to be added to the main event of Rise to Greatness to see how petty she can be in order to keep the peons talking about her. Isn’t that why she’s got her nose firmly glued to Mr. D’s ringpiece all of the time, huh?” he asked, looking up at the camera for a moment before turning away again. “Selena is the biggest cunt not to actually be called a cunt by the people who watch this shitshow and yet I’m the bad guy for getting angered by the disrespect I was getting from the board? That’s fucking hilarious bro, it really is…”
Coming to a stop roughly in the middle of the shot, Aaron turned back to face the camera, shaking his head sadly. “And even when she gets given the world, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Selena Frost is the most hard done by fuck on this entire roster with the way she acts!” he pointed out, nodding his head for extra emphasis. “You’ve heard her, you know the drill… basically, she knows she’s always the bridesmaid but never the bride and that drives her up the wall so much that she complains more than most in this company and yet you dumb fucks cheer her? I’ll never understand that viewpoint, I didn’t get it before and I don’t get it now! How can anyone feel sorry for someone who’s entire outlook is woe is me with a hint of catchphrases and quips thrown in to print across merchandise?! At least if that was why D. was so on board with her, I’d understand it. Money talks and bullshit walks; Selena talks bullshit and makes money so I’m not shocked that Mr. D loves her so much that he wanted to give her another shot at Regan and the U.S title before Regan burst that bubble with her violent outburst last week. Or may have done, guess we’ll see what D does about that this Wednesday, won’t we? But before Selena can dip that pit at the thought of maybe still getting her chance to get her hands on gold at the big one thanks to the possible technicality that belts cant change hands on a disqualification, she has to get past me on Breakdown first and right now, I’m just about ready to take her head clear off in order to find out what’s inside of a snow globe because bro, I’m fucking pissed off!” Aaron went on, once again shaking his head at the way things were done in SCW. “Imagine being the golden boy or girl, imagine being the one who is given all the opportunities she could ever ask for, all the title opportunities and main event spots and still being unhappy! Selena… try getting nothing and see how fucking happy you are, you arrogant ungrateful bitch! And I don’t care what people say, I don’t care if people want to give me shit, Selena Frost is an entitled cunt who doesn’t care how much she’s simply gifted by this company, it’s never enough! And talk about hypocritical; that shit before Taking Hold of the Flame, going swing-batter-batter with a chair the way she did, attacking Josh? If that was Regan or me or Sienna doing that shit, we’d have been damned to all eternity but because it’s the golden girl, it was all fine and dandy? Fuck off!”
Walking towards the camera a little - Bella having to make sure she tilted the camera upwards to keep him in shot - Aaron shook his head in disbelief at the audacity from Selena. “You don’t get it do you Selena? Oh, we all know how good you are… hell, I’ve been in the ring with you, I can attest to that myself, it’s not like I’m trying to throw you, being fare, incredible skill under the boss for the sake of scoring pathetic cheap shots. And looking at everything you’ve accomplished, I don’t think I could pull that off anyway, because you don’t win Best of the Best, Trio’s, Shot of Adrenaline, various titles or the rest of your royal honors without having that skill and I think even the dumbest of the dumb that watch this companies programing can understand that. Hell, even your biggest detractors probably know all too well how skilled you are, even if they hate everything you say, do, support and stand for! Hi Mom!” Aaron said, pausing briefly to smirk before pushing on, the smirk fading from his face.
“But all of that is thrown under the bus by your desire to make everything about you Selena, and you can argue with me about that if you want but the fact remains you’re a fucking attention seeker who is desperate for everybody to have their eye on you every single minute! And the worst part about all of it is that you dress it up as something to venerate for your fans, for the company’s fans... you paint this beautiful, charming picture that you fight to overcome the odds, that you struggle to earn your passage to the top, never let the hardships get you down or hold you back. You’re championed as a hero, put on a fucking pedestal as the perfect example of not just how you should compose yourself but what a star in this business should be... but it’s all a load of bullshit Selena, it’s bullshit and you know it as well as I do! You’re no different to me Selena, no different to the person I am, only I’m upfront about it while you hide behind the fans belief, with the aid of the best fucking acting job I’ve seen since I first watching Arnold Braunschweiger in The Exterminator when I was a kid!” he said, chuckling to himself; he’d leave that to Selena to decide whether that was a compliment or an insult. “And you know what Selena? You may beat me on Wednesday. Yeah, I can admit that. You may beat me and I’ll go on your little list of true believers and you’ll probably make some pissy comments about me in your next promo about how I wasn’t good enough and you did it for the fans and thank people for believing, and my record gets another loss... but we both know Selena, and this is something you can’t take from me even if you can take a victory away from me, that the only person you do things for is you! I’ll do absolutely anything for provide for my family, anything it takes to ensure I bring that paycheck home for my fiancé and our daughter... and in a way, I admit that we probably have a lot in common there, wanting to provide for our kids, our families. But if anything, I’m the honest one between us, because at least I’m honest about everything I say and do, even when I’m dishonest! Can you say the same, huh?!”
Shrugging his shoulders, Aaron sighed before slipping his hands into the pockets of his zip up hooded top. “At the end of the day, it won’t matter though... because whether I beat you or not, you’ll still be the same old Selena Frost. The same hypocrite, the same arrogant bitch that thinks she’s owed something by the world, and in honesty, you probably don’t give a damn about this match anyway, because you’ll be concentrating on my mom, won’t you sweetheart?” he asked, cracking a smile. “And that’s fine... Regan is the star, not me; I’ve got a long way to go before I’m mentioned in the same breath as her, and unfortunately, you too... but while I know how little you’ll truly get from beating me on Wednesday, I know how much I’ll gain from beating you! And you can talk about your true believers or fire off as many annoying fucking clichés as you like, but when all’s said and done Selena, the only one with anything to gain this week is me and if you think I’m going to walk out there with anything other than a victory in mind then you have another thing coming! So please Selena... I hope you’re ready for a fight, because the last thing I want you doing is fixating on my mom, when to get to her at Rise to Greatness, or even to get to her next week... you have to go through me! And whether I can pull off the upset – because I can admit it’ll be one if I win – or not, it won’t matter... because I can do Regan a favor and hell, do half the roster a favor too, by busting you up and leaving you vulnerable at the show of shows. Hell, maybe mom will even finish the job and spike you on your head with a piledriver to get rid of you for good! I’m sure it’ll be more than worth the sixty days at home with full pay, am I right?” he asked with another sly smirk before starting to speak again for the final time. “At the end of the day though... I’m happy to go out there on Wednesday knowing I’m of little to no concern for you Selena. In fact I fucking like the idea of that, I like the idea of being overlooked and undervalued; it makes the motivation to shock you all that much sweeter. And then what happens, if I do beat you huh? Well, I’ll just apologise to the roster and fans now for the whining and complaining. Because as sure as the sun will set and the tides will come in, we can also guarantee one more thing... win or lose? Selena Frost will still be unhappy. Because some things never change. BANG!” he said, smirking at the camera before simply walking out of shot, and Bella thumbed the stop button as Aaron unzipped his jacket and slipped it off.
[[/RECORDING STOPPED]]
“That felt good,” Aaron said with a grin, walking over to the desk where Bella had sat before they started to film. “Probably get nothing but contradictions and bullshit reasons why I’m wrong when Selena sees it, but hey, I said what was on my mind and it’s not my concern if she likes it or not...”
Bella stood there looking at him, her head cocked to one side before finally speaking. “You know, you’re not as big of a pussy as I thought you were,” she finally said, shooting him another crooked smile and Aaron pretended to be offended for a moment before grinning back. “Okay, so that was actually more fun than I expected... and you get paid money to do this shit? Fuck, some idiots do it on YouTube for free just because they want to rant...”
“Yeah, but YouTubers don’t have to get in a ring with the person they’ve just insulted and fight them after throwing all that shade around,” Aaron said, chuckling. “You’ll get it eventually though, if you get through AnteUp and decide to actually go after a career in the business...”
“Yeah, because that’s gonna happen dude,” Bella said, sarcastically.
“I don’t see why not,” Aaron reasoned, shrugging his shoulders and Bella looked at him skeptically but he wasn’t joking. “I’m being serious... not everyone walks through the doors of AnteUp with a full arsenal of moves they’ve long ago perfected, just looking for the accreditation. I didn’t know a thing before I started, other than knowing what most moves looked like from being a fan...”
Bella seemed deep in thought for a moment before she screwed up her face dismissively. “Yeah, but dude, according to you, I don’t even know how to throw a proper punch!” she said, smirking. “Besides, I’m not sure I want to be a wrestler... I’m doing this shit because it keeps me out of jail, that’s all...”
“I know that,” Aaron said, nodding his head. “But if Britt is taking a personal interest in you then she has to see something... she fought to keep you at AnteUp when Matty was ready to let you go, isn’t that worth paying her back for?”
“I guess,” Bella said, sighing. The brunette folded her arms around her own body and for a moment at least, looked partially vulnerable. Something that Aaron found strange to see. “I mean, I can try and apply myself at the school anyway, and at least keep an open mind about what may come after I graduate, right?”
“Exactly!” Aaron said, smiling as he hopped down from the desk and threw an arm around Bella’s shoulder. “And in the meantime, I’ll give you some guidance on promos, help out at AnteUp where I can, and all I ask in return is that you help me fix this place up and then be my camera-monkey,” he told her, smirking as Bella shrugged his arm off and flipped him off. She didn’t seem too impressed by that idea... she wasn’t slave labor and she wanted to make sure Aaron understood that. Not that he had any intention of treating her as such as he turned, chuckling to himself, to pack up the gear again. In truth, the help with promos was just an excuse to hang out and get to know each other; if Aaron was going to be the friend to Bella that Britt wanted then he had to earn her trust and that meant spending time with her, just hanging out. It was going to be a long process... but somehow, Aaron didn’t really mind. Something told him that he was gonna have a good deal of fun along the way...
